The Government Service Insurance System, in response to GSIS members’ complaints about delays in their monthly pensions, said yesterday this could be explained by the transition from manual check disbursement to electronic fund transmission.
“Our old system of check disbursement took weeks because the checks had to be printed, mailed, deposited and encashed, Now that we are sending the pensions to the pensioners’ eCard account, they can expect their money on the first working day of every month,” Enriqueta Disuanco, GSIS executive vice president for operations, said in a statement.
She said reports of delays could be due to pensioners having failed to enroll in the eCard system.
As early as March this year, opposition senatorial candidate Francis Escudero called for the immediate release of the pensions after retirees in Sorsogon and other areas in Bicol told him that the GSIS had failed to remit their pensions for the past four months.
There have been reports that a fraction of the GSIS budget could have been diverted for use in the elections. GSIS officials vehemently denied this allegation and said the agency remains apolitical.
The GSIS said it has sped up the monthly release of pensions, contrary to Escudero’s claims.
Disuanco said as early as 2005, the GSIS has been enrolling pensioners to the eCard system. Last year, the GSIS informed pensioners through letters and print ads that it will stop sending pension checks through the mail starting in January 2007.
Instead, pensioners can withdraw their money using their eCard at any of the 6,000 Megalink, Bancnet and Expressnet automated teller machines all over the country.
As of February, 126,854 out of 136,145 pensioners were issued eCards.
But several pensioners are complaining that they have been unable to get their pensions from the Union Bank for three months now. They said they were informed by the bank that the GSIS had not deposited money in the account.
Disuanco said another common reason for the delay is the failure of those with eCard Plus to activate their accounts.
“Once the eCard Plus is delivered to them, pensioners need to go to the nearest GSIS office or any government establishment where the G-W@PS (GSIS wireless automated processing system) kiosk is installed and activate their eCard Plus by validating their fingerprints through the kiosk,” she said.
Disuanco said the activation of the eCard account is a security measure that allows the GSIS to identify the holder of the eCard as the legitimate beneficiary of the pension benefit.
“As soon as the account is activated, pensioners will start receiving their pension benefits, including their accrued pensions,” she said. — Christina Mendez, Joyce Ann Segui